Preparation for retirement usually focuses on financial planning and security. And with good reason. A financially secure life is a lot happier than an insecure one. However, emotional security in this stage of life is of equal importance; sadly, this issue is not so energetically addressed.

I thought I had always been fully committed to this work of human transformation. But when I study my own lifeline and do some truth telling, it’s clear that I’ve taken more than a few detours. I haven’t exactly blazed a straight path towards enlightenment, nor have I accomplished a mountain of social good.

“Don’t kill. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. Don’t screw with someone else’s happiness....” The 10 Commandments are not high spiritual values. In fact, they cater to the lowest common denominator of a species that had just begun to realize it had higher capacities than did the animals all around it.

There is no plan B. It is up to us to break the chains of unskillful solutions that were handed down to us, to consciously decide who we want to be, what type of relationships will nourish us, and what type of world we care to live in.

It’s not trite to set New Year's intentions, especially if they make your life brighter. Set some intentions and goals for the coming year. The idea is to shift your attention away from your shortcomings, bad decisions and behaviors, and just focus on making yourself, your best self.

Thriving in life requires fortitude. It's a strength that Professor Cornel West refers to as spiritual fortitude. What gives us power in life, he says, is not anything in the world, but our own internal resources.

We Americans are caught in a web of our own cre­ation. We celebrate the individual; we praise self-reliance. We have built our entire economic system on competition and striving, where we set ourselves one against the other... Is this truly the vision of who we want to be and what we wish to pass along to our children?

All of us have a genius within us. For Steven Spielberg, it was in film. All of us can experience the benefits of a purposeful life, yet few make it their life purpose to find the genius within themselves. This purpose includes...

The power to bring about change is in our hands. That's because the most important thing that each of us needs is each other. Many of our problems have grown out of our alienation -- our inattention to each other as individuals. And that is something we have the power to change. One by one, person by person, we...

I enjoy varying my choice of clothing, jewelry, purses, shoes, hair style, always craving a new look. Yet, generally, life provides changes on a much larger scale, which can be challenging. With every major milestone in my life, I have experienced a period of adjustment.

Sometimes, it’s useful to ask yourself: What do I gain by continuing the course of action I am taking, and what might I gain by choosing an alternative course of action? So often we find ourselves on a course of action that demands we argue with another until...

What can one person do?That is the question millions of us ask as we survey the global landscape. We’re asking the wrong question. More important than what we can do is...

When we feel stuck or want to change something, it usually comes from the desire to improve or rid ourselves of something we don’t like, or that’s painful. Perhaps you’re inspired to change because...

It’s not always easy to embrace change. There are times in our lives when we feel sad that change is happening. We want to resist it, even if unbeknownst to us it is bringing future happiness into our life.

When we look at nature, we can clearly see how everything is related to cycles. We have lunar cycles, tide cycles, flower cycles, mating cycles, birthing cycles, and death cycles. Nature creates beautiful things and then these beautiful things fade and get replaced by other beautiful things.

Somewhere, we got the idea that losses should be avoided at all costs because they are too painful. The result: no one taught us to effectively mourn when a significant ending occurs. As a result we often are stuck in a flat, gray place.

Are you living the life you’ve always dreamed of? I mean, really? Are you the person you want to be? Or is there a persistent issue in your life you’ve yet to change or improve? No matter where you’re starting from, you can go to your next level of...

The spiritual teacher Bashar defines abundance as “the ability to do what you need to do when you need to do it.” This definition says nothing about a particular amount of money in your bank account or a specified way your support should come. There are an infinite number of ways you can be taken care of. Money is just one of them.

According to Jung, the shadow is any part of the psyche which remains unconscious. It is not always dark or undesirable. Since the shadow is any part of ourselves that we "send away," it contains parts of oneself which may also be quite pleasing, yet for one reason or another, are allowed neither awareness nor expression.

I have come to understand how important it is to have a healthy balance between Yin and Yang energies, both within us and outside of us. Yin energy is the energy of rest, introspection, integration, reflection and silence. Often misunderstood to be the weaker component...

One process for attaining clarity used by the Quakers is called the clearness committee. In it a person convenes a group of at least four people to ask him or her questions on an issue about which he or she wants clarity.

Everything you do is either taking you somewhere or it is taking you nowhere. If there is any value in going nowhere, it is to bring you to the realization of the somewhere you would rather be.

Unfortunately, for many of us, the condition and appearance of the place where we live make us feel uneasy instead of refreshed, resulting in relationship, career, and creative blocks. We need to feel truly at home in our living quarters and in our own bodies.